I was wondering if anybody uses Jersey Riggs for wacky worm fishing?We have been using them for almost 20 years and catch lots of fish.I find it interesting that Yamamoto Sencos get the credit for "inventing" this style of angling!If you check out Jeff Camarinos?website you can see where he came out with these 25 years ago.Is it possible Sencos were around back then and I didn't know about them?I don't see how as back then even without the internet I was up on the latest doings.They are not sold by the big stores so we buy them here in N.E.Pa. in small tackle shops.They cost $6.00 for a pack of 20 so they are cheaper than Sencos.At one time they were even packaged at nearby Hawley,Pa.We lost count of the fish we have caught with them over the years!Again I am surprised at how many fishermen are crazy for the Sencos as if they were the new kid on the block.Just something to talk about on a cold winter day.Thanks for reading!

I've never heard about those baits before, Redline. It may simply be that Yamamoto had enough money to get his product out into the mainstream more effectively than did Jeff Camarinos. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, the bait design is outrageously simple and yet extremely successful. Heck, I'd be surprised a bit if Yamamoto was the first to think of the design.

Never heard that Gary Yamamo " Invented ", whacky, I believe it is a method which was discovered several times in a number of places and eventually gained acceptance when some of the Pro's started using it. My first mention of whacky came via a magazine where some vistors from back east were at Californias Clear Lake and asked what be a good lure to try. Someone gave them some plastic worms and being unfamiliar with them, fished them like nighcrawlers, hooking them through the egg sack and retrieving them slowly back---they caught fish--the person who gave them the worms was surprised.
I think that it took a number of these incedents before someone tried it as a method.
As for Senkos and the like, I remember "French Fries" down south, didn't learn how to fish them at the time but they were popular in some areas. It is possible that the type of worm started because someone lost part of a worm and kept fishing and catching on that attenuated lure.
I believe Yammamoto's first "hit" was a twin tail grub.
As for popularity, Gary did some tournament fishing and became friends with other tournament fisherman, some of who are his friends and he advertises with them, Roland Martin for example. Senkos started out at Lake Powell (I think) as that is Gary's home lake.

Yes I also heard the story about the tourist fisherman who years ago walked into a tackle shop and he asked the owner what all the locals were using to catch fish in that area and was told to use plastic worms.He went out on the lake and did real good and returned to thank the guy for the tip and he was shocked at how good he did.Like you said he had no idea how to rig them the "right" way and cleaned up.One thing I remember a lot of pros saying over the years is to stop trying to give the fish what you want and let the fish tell you what they want.By the way one of the latest issues of Bassmaster magazine has a story about plastics and lists Texas,wacky and drop shot as 1,2,3.It's by Shaw Grigsby.By the way my buddy always fishes his wacky with nail inserts to sink faster and I almost never use weights and we both catch fish.

I do not know how long senkos have been around, but I heard Gary say they had been around for a long time, and he was catching tons of fish on them before anybody was buying many of them from him.

I never meant to say that Jeff Camarino invented the wacky style of worm fishing,of course it was "invented" by the first person who did not know how to fish plastic worms the "right" way and hooked them in the middle.I was just curious if anybody else was using the Jersey Riggs besides us.My buddy and I catch so many fish on them we have never used Senkos or had a need to.We have been using Jersey Riggs almost 20 years now .I do not believe Senkos were around at the time or we would have heard about them.Maybe if we had started with Senkos first we would have had success with them and never tried the Jersey Riggs.I know that Gary Y. has better distribution with his products and that of course is important as is publicity.Look at what happened to the Rapala back in the early 60's when the lure had a story in the same magazine as the issue about Marilyn Monroe!It got so much publicity the could not make them fast enough.Jeff C. had articles published in Fur-Fish-and Game and lots of other magazines and newspaper articles so why his products didn't catch on bigger is a mystery to me and that is why I wanted to know if others used them.I guess if you take any kind of stickworm or French fry or whatever and hook in in the middle and throw it in the right place and work it in front of fish you are bound to catch them.